A Spec in Time Series

Well, it is done. Version 1.01 is available Saturday 12/3. I have a thing about the number 123. I am glad that I pulled it and redid the mistakes. The typos and hominins would have driven me crazy(er). I also learned so much during this regrouping process. I learned to let things go; to admit a mistake without becoming a puddle of tears; to ask for help as more eyes than 3 are necessary. I learned how to format = yes, I did it by myself. If the preview is really correct, I think I did a great job. See I have learned to say ‘I did good.’ Okay, maybe just this once, I still need improvement.

NOTE: if you are one of the (two?) who bought the ebook this is how you get the update. … go to the library – remove the download and then re-download it. You should get the update. Now back to your regular blog.

I learned: do not do any formatting until all is said and done with the writing and editing. Do it in one chunk at the end. The loop of format-PDF-upload-review – repeat is a killer. It was a two-day project, but yet I was learning. I am still unsure how I got the main page numbers to work, but poof they are in there. I never did figure out how to get the forward page numbers to work without messing up the main section (guess what I chose to do?) Yep. That is right, fuck it, I let it go. See, working on my perfectionism.

Perfectionism, wow that is a thing for me. I am a former classical musician. Be perfect on every note or lose your job. One gets that in their mindset and that is all there is. Is the note in the right place, at the right time, with the correct timbre and pitch? That perfectionism has been carried by me throughout my life. It is a hefty load. I feel like I am at the point to let some of it go. Some things can be good enough. Not books of course! But I am trying. There will always be a word I want to change or a comma that is not correct. Maybe those things I must learn to move on and let be. Someday.

I have learned much. The don’t ask for help thing has always been very ingrained in my being as well. Just do it was not a new slogan when I first heard it in a Nike commercial. It was just how it was, and is, with me. I remember thinking; yep, doesn’t everyone just do what needs to be done? I am now guessing that answer is no.

Time has a way of making us learn to overcome childhood, one way or another. The tapes in our head, the habits we have become conditioned to do. I still write and say ‘withe’ for ‘with the’. Why not? It flows together anyways. Then I hear the tape in my head berating me because it is wrong. It is not my fault; I am from Wisconsin. It is so cold at times you run every word together so that you can stop talking and get inside. Not my fault I have dyslexia and have to use a funny font to read. It is not my fault that my parents could not spell either. It took me years to figure out what my dad meant when he would say ‘look it up in the Funk and Wagles(Wagnalls)’, was. I will just stick to the OED, I can spell that. It is not my fault: but it is mine to overcome.

I am overwhelmed by the friends who have read the book and said, ” Let me help.” They are now so hooked on the story that they are wanting to help me with the next book, and they will take it in bits and pieces. I will take them up on that offer. I will send them those bits and pieces totally out of order to mess them up. Wait, that is how I write anyways.

But for now, I can go back to shameless self-promotion, lean on the friend who is a promoter, and just let myself go back to writing instead of fretting.

With that in mind: BUY MY BOOK! Available on Amazon. The Harvesters, Book one of the A Spec in Time series by M. Narf. Go get it NOW

How was that? Did I do it right?